I am completely astonished at how much drama is in this business of martial arts (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu / Mixed Martial Arts), and being an academy owner, it seems even more magnified! I just don’t get it… what is this drama all about? What team you’re from? What belt you are? What your record is? How bad you think you are? All this “he said, she said” is for the birds. Don’t you remember why you started training in the first place? Don’t you remember why you continued training? Because you loved it. Let’s all get back to that and set the ego aside. There is no need for it.

It’s one thing if you burned someone in business or are generally a deceitful person; that’s not what I’m addressing right now. I’m talking about all the other self generated problems that make up the majority of the problems in this business… Ego, Greed, Jealousy, Money, ect. I lost a lot of “so called friends” since I opened my own martial arts academy. People that I never would have thought would have turned on me, and all because of this place. I find it even more amusing that even though I’m the one who get’s blocked on Facebook, ignored and talked bad about, my business partner (50% owner) is the “cool” guy. LOL I say, What ever floats your boat. But just remember this, you have all taught me very valuable lessons and for that I’m grateful. You served your purpose and I’m glad that you moved on.

Here’s one final thought: You continue to do your mental gymnastics and tell yourself whatever story you need to to justify your feeling, words and actions. We both know what really happened and what was really going on. Just because I didn’t say anything before didn’t mean that I didn’t know what was up. Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness.

1. Believe in Yourself

2. Just Get It Done, Even If It Isn’t Perfect

3. Stick to Your Vision and Tune Out the Naysayers

4. Loyalty Breeds Success

5. Live Below Your Means

6. Follow Your Passion, Not the Money.

- These are words that I have lived by. Well said Mark.

Original Article Posted here: http://www.esquire.com/features/essay/ESQ0307ESSAY?src=soc_fcbk

Posted: June 26, 2007, 3:51 PM
WRITTEN BY BRIAN MOCKENHAUPT
More from this author

I Miss Iraq. I Miss My Gun. I Miss My War.

A year after coming home from a tour in Iraq, a soldier returns home to find out he left something behind.

A few months ago, I found a Web site loaded with pictures and videos from Iraq, the sort that usually aren’t seen on the news. I watched insurgent snipers shoot American soldiers and car bombs disintegrate markets, accompanied by tinny music and loud, rhythmic chanting, the soundtrack of the propaganda campaigns. Video cameras focused on empty stretches of road, building anticipation. Humvees rolled into view and the explosions brought mushroom clouds of dirt and smoke and chunks of metal spinning through the air. Other videos and pictures showed insurgents shot dead while planting roadside bombs or killed in firefights and the remains of suicide bombers, people how they’re not meant to be seen, no longer whole. The images sickened me, but their familiarity pulled me in, giving comfort, and I couldn’t stop. I clicked through more frames, hungry for it. This must be what a shot of dope feels like after a long stretch of sobriety. Soothing and nauseating and colored by everything that has come before. My body tingled and my stomach ached, hollow. I stood on weak legs and walked into the kitchen to make dinner. I sliced half an onion before putting the knife down and watching slight tremors run through my hand. The shakiness lingered. I drank a beer. And as I leaned against this kitchen counter, in this house, in America, my life felt very foreign.

I’ve been home from Iraq for more than a year, long enough for my time there to become a memory best forgotten for those who worried every day that I was gone. I could see their relief when I returned. Life could continue, with futures not so uncertain. But in quiet moments, their relief brought me guilt. Maybe they assume I was as overjoyed to be home as they were to have me home. Maybe they assume if I could do it over, I never would have gone. And maybe I wouldn’t have. But I miss Iraq. I miss the war. I miss war. And I have a very hard time understanding why.

I’m glad to be home, to have put away my uniforms, to wake up next to my wife each morning. I worry about my friends who are in Iraq now, and I wish they weren’t. Often I hated being there, when the frustrations and lack of control over my life were complete and mind-bending. I questioned my role in the occupation and whether good could come of it. I wondered if it was worth dying or killing for. The suffering and ugliness I saw disgusted me. But war twists and shifts the landmarks by which we navigate our lives, casting light on darkened areas that for many people remain forever unexplored. And once those darkened spaces are lit, they become part of us. At a party several years ago, long before the Army, I listened to a friend who had served several years in the Marines tell a woman that if she carried a pistol for a day, just tucked in her waistband and out of sight, she would feel different. She would see the world differently, for better or worse. Guns empower. She disagreed and he shrugged. No use arguing the point; he was just offering a little piece of truth. He was right, of course. And that’s just the beginning.

I’ve spent hours taking in the world through a rifle scope, watching life unfold. Women hanging laundry on a rooftop. Men haggling over a hindquarter of lamb in the market. Children walking to school. I’ve watched this and hoped that someday I would see that my presence had made their lives better, a redemption of sorts. But I also peered through the scope waiting for someone to do something wrong, so I could shoot him. When you pick up a weapon with the intent of killing, you step onto a very strange and serious playing field. Every morning someone wakes wanting to kill you. When you walk down the street, they are waiting, and you want to kill them, too. That’s not bloodthirsty; that’s just the trade you’ve learned. And as an American soldier, you have a very impressive toolbox. You can fire your rifle or lob a grenade, and if that’s not enough, call in the tanks, or helicopters, or jets. The insurgents have their skill sets, too, turning mornings at the market into chaos, crowds into scattered flesh, Humvees into charred scrap. You’re all part of the terrible magic show, both powerful and helpless.

That men are drawn to war is no surprise. How old are boys before they turn a finger and thumb into a pistol? Long before they love girls, they love war, at least everything they imagine war to be: guns and explosions and manliness and courage. When my neighbors and I played war as kids, there was no fear or sorrow or cowardice. Death was temporary, usually as fast as you could count to sixty and jump back into the game. We didn’t know yet about the darkness. And young men are just slightly older versions of those boys, still loving the unknown, perhaps pumped up on dreams of duty and heroism and the intoxicating power of weapons. In time, war dispels many such notions, and more than a few men find that being freed from society’s professed revulsion to killing is really no freedom at all, but a lonely burden. Yet even at its lowest points, war is like nothing else. Our culture craves experience, and that is war’s strong suit. War peels back the skin, and you live with a layer of nerves exposed, overdosing on your surroundings, when everything seems all wrong and just right, in a way that makes perfect sense. And then you almost die but don’t, and are born again, stoned on life and mocking death. The explosions and gunfire fry your nerves, but you want to hear them all the same. Something’s going down.

For those who know, this is the open secret: War is exciting. Sometimes I was in awe of this, and sometimes I felt low and mean for loving it, but I loved it still. Even in its quiet moments, war is brighter, louder, brasher, more fun, more tragic, more wasteful. More. More of everything. And even then I knew I would someday miss it, this life so strange. Today the war has distilled to moments and feelings, and somewhere in these memories is the reason for the wistfulness.

On one mission we slip away from our trucks and into the night. I lead the patrol through the darkness, along canals and fields and into the town, down narrow, hard-packed dirt streets. Everyone has gone to bed, or is at least inside. We peer through gates and over walls into courtyards and into homes. In a few rooms TVs flicker. A woman washes dishes in a tub. Dogs bark several streets away. No one knows we are in the street, creeping. We stop at intersections, peek around corners, training guns on parked cars, balconies, and storefronts. All empty. We move on. From a small shop up ahead, we hear men’s voices and laughter. Maybe they used to sit outside at night, but now they are indoors, where it’s safe. Safer. The sheet-metal door opens and a man steps out, cigarette and lighter in hand. He still wears a smile, takes in the cool night air, and then nearly falls backward through the doorway in a panic. I’m a few feet from him now and his eyes are wide. I mutter a greeting and we walk on, back into the darkness.

Another night we’re lost in a dust storm. I’m in the passenger seat, trying to guide my driver and the three trucks behind us through this brown maelstrom. The headlights show nothing but swirling dirt. We’ve driven these roads for months, we know them well, but we see nothing. So we drive slow, trying to stay out of canals and people’s kitchens. We curse and we laugh. This is bizarre but a great deal of fun.

Another night my platoon sergeant’s truck is swallowed in flames, a terrible, beautiful, boiling bloom of red and orange and yellow, lighting the darkness for a moment. Somehow we don’t die, one more time.

Another night, there’s McCarthy bitching, the cherry of his cigarette bobbing in the dark, bitching that he won’t be on the assault team, that he’s stuck as a turret gunner for the night. We’d been out since early that morning, came back for dinner, and are preparing to raid a weapons dealer. Our first real raid. I heave my body armor onto my shoulders, settling its too-familiar weight. Then the helmet and first-aid kit and maps and radio and ammunition and rifle and all the rest. Now I look like everyone else, an arm of this strange and destructive organism, covered in armor and guns. We crowd around a satellite map spread across a Humvee hood and trace our route. Wells, my squad leader, rehearses our movements. Get in quick. Watch the danger zones. If he has a gun, kill him. I look around the group, at these faces I know so well, and feel the collective strength, this ridiculous power. The camaraderie of men in arms plays a part, for sure. The shared misery and euphoria and threat of death. But there is something more: the surrender of self, voluntary or not, to the machine. Do I believe in the war? Not important. Put that away and live in the moment, where little is knowable and even less is controllable, when my world narrows to one street, one house, one room, one door.

We pack into the trucks after midnight, and the convoy snakes out of camp and speeds toward the target house. I sit in a backseat and the fear settles in, a sharp burning in my stomach, same as the knot from hard liquor gulped too fast. I think about the knot. I’ll be the first through the door. What if he starts shooting, hits me right in the face before I’m even through the doorway? What if there’s two, or three? What if he pitches a grenade at us? And I think about it more and run through the scenarios, planning my movements, imagining myself clearing through the rooms, firing two rounds into the chest, and the knot fades.

The trucks drop us off several blocks from the target house and we slip into the night. As always, the dogs bark. We gather against the high wall outside the house and call in the trucks to block the streets. The action will pass in a flash. But here, before the chaos starts, when we’re stacked against the wall, my friends’ bodies pressed against me, hearing their quick breaths and my own, there’s a moment to appreciate the gravity, the absurdity, the novelty, the joy of the moment. Is this real? Hearts beat strong. Hands grip tight on weapons. Reassurance. The rest of the world falls away. Who knows what’s on the other side?

One, two, three, go. We push past the gate and across the courtyard and toward the house, barrels locked on the windows and roof. Wells runs up with the battering ram, a short, heavy pipe with handles, and launches it toward the massive wood door. The lock explodes, the splintered door flies open, and we rush through, just the way we’ve practiced hundreds of times. No one shoots me in the face. No grenades roll to my feet. I kick open doors. We scan darkened bedrooms with the flashlights on our rifles and move on to the next and the next.

He’s gone, of course. We ransack his house, dumping drawers, flipping mattresses, punching holes in the ceiling. We find rifles and grenades and hundreds of pounds of gunpowder. And then, near dawn, we lie down on the thick carpets in his living room and sleep, exhausted and untroubled.

Many, many raids followed. We often raided houses late at night, so people awakened to soldiers bursting through their bedroom doors. Women and children wailed, terrified. Taking this in, I imagined what it would feel like if soldiers kicked down my door at midnight, if I could do nothing to protect my family. I would hate those soldiers. Yet I still reveled in the raids, their intensity and uncertainty. The emotions collided, without resolution.

My wife moved to Iraq partway through my second deployment to live in the north and train Iraqi journalists. She spent her evenings at restaurants and tea shops with her Iraqi friends. We spoke by cell phone, when the spotty network allowed, and she told me about this life I couldn’t imagine, celebrating holidays with her colleagues and being invited into their homes. I didn’t have any Iraqi friends, save for our few translators, and I’d rarely been invited into anyone’s home. I told her of my life, the tedious days and frightful seconds, and she worried that in all of this I would lose my thoughtfulness and might stop questioning and just accept. But she didn’t judge the work that I did, and I didn’t tell her that I sometimes enjoyed it, that for stretches of time I didn’t think about the greater implications, that it sometimes seemed like a game. I didn’t tell her that death felt ever present and far away, and that either way, it didn’t really seem to matter.

We both came back from Iraq, luckier than many. Two of my wife’s students have been killed, among the scores of journalists to die in Iraq, and guys I served with are still dying, too. One came home from the war and shot himself on Thanksgiving. Another was blown up on Christmas in Baghdad.

Thinking of them, I felt disgusted with myself for missing the war and wondered if I was alone in this.

I don’t think I am.

After watching the Internet videos, I called some of my friends who are out of the Army now, and they miss the war, too. Wells very nearly died in Iraq. A sniper shot him in the head, surgeons cut out half of his skull—a story told in this magazine last April—and he spent months in therapy, working back to his old self. Now he misses the high. “I don’t want to sound like a psychopath, but you’re like a god over there,” he says. “It might not be the best kind of adrenaline for you, but it’s a rush.” Before Iraq, he didn’t care for horror movies, and now he’s drawn to them. He watches them for the little thrill, the rush of being startled, if just for a moment.

McCarthy misses the war just the same. He saved Wells’s life, pressing a bandage over the hole in his head. Now he’s delivering construction materials to big hotel projects along the beach in South Carolina, waiting for a police department to process his application. “The monotony is killing me,” he told me, en route to deliver some rebar. “I want to go on a raid. I want something to blow up. I want something to change today.” He wants the unknown. “Anything can happen, and it does happen. And all of the sudden your world is shattered, and everything has changed. It’s living dangerously. You’re living on the edge. And you’re the baddest motherfucker around.”

Mortal danger heightens the senses. That is simple animal instinct. We’re more aware of how our world smells and sounds and tastes. This distorts and enriches experiences. Now I can have everything, but it’s not as good as when I could have none of it. McCarthy and I stood on a rooftop one afternoon in Iraq running through a long list of the food we wanted. We made it to homemade pizza and icy beer when someone loosed a long burst of gunfire that cracked over our heads. We ran to the other side of the rooftop, but the gunman had disappeared down a long alleyway. Today my memory of that pizza and beer is stronger than if McCarthy and I had sat down together with the real thing before us.

And today we even speak with affection of wrestling a dead man into a body bag, because that was then. The bullet had laid his thigh wide open, shattered the femur, and shredded the artery, so he’d bled out fast, pumping much of his blood onto the sidewalk. We unfolded and unzipped the nylon sack and laid it alongside him. And then we stared for a moment, none of us ready to close that distance. I grabbed his forearm and dropped it, maybe instinct, maybe revulsion. He hovered so near this world, having just passed over, that he seemed to be sucking life from me, pulling himself back or taking me with him. He peeked at us through a half-opened eye. I stared down on him, his massive dead body, and again wrapped a hand around his wrist, thick and warm. The man was huge, taller than six feet and close to 250 pounds. We strained with the awkward weight, rolled him into the bag, and zipped him out of sight. My platoon sergeant gave two neighborhood kids five dollars to wash away the congealing puddle of blood. But the red handprint stayed on the wall, where the man had tried to brace himself before he fell. I think about him sometimes, splayed out on the sidewalk, and I think of how lucky I was never to have put a friend in one of those bags. Or be put in one myself.

But the memories, good and bad, are only part of the reason war holds its grip long after soldiers have come home. The war was urgent and intense and the biggest story going, always on the news stations and magazine covers. At home, though, relearning everyday life, the sense of mission can be hard to find. And this is not just about dim prospects and low-paying jobs in small towns. Leaving the war behind can be a letdown, regardless of opportunity or education or the luxuries waiting at home. People I’d never met sent me boxes of cookies and candy throughout my tours. When I left for two weeks of leave, I was cheered at airports and hugged by strangers. At dinner with my family one night, a man from the next table bought me a $400 bottle of wine. I was never quite comfortable with any of this, but they were heady moments nonetheless. For my friends who are going back to Iraq or are there already, there is little enthusiasm. Any fondness for war is tainted by the practicalities of operating and surviving in combat. Wells and McCarthy and I can speak of the war with nostalgia because we belong to a different world now. And yet there is little to say, because we are scattered, far from those who understand.

When I came home, people often asked me about Iraq, and mostly I told them it wasn’t so bad. The first few times, my wife asked me why I had been so blithe. Why didn’t I tell them what Iraq was really like? I didn’t know how to explain myself to them. The war really wasn’t so bad. Yes, there were bombs and shootings and nervous times, but that was just the job. In fact, going to war is rather easy. You react to situations around you and try not to die. There are no electric bills or car payments or chores around the house. Just go to work, come home alive, and do it again tomorrow. McCarthy calls it pure and serene. Indeed. Life at home can be much more trying. But I didn’t imagine the people asking would understand that. I didn’t care much if they did, and often it seemed they just wanted a war story, a bit of grit and gore. If they really want to know, they can always find out for themselves. But they don’t, they just want a taste of the thrill. We all do. We covet life outside our bubble. That’s why we love tragedy, why we love hearing about war and death on the television, drawn to it in spite of ourselves. We gawk at accident scenes and watch people humiliate themselves on reality shows and can’t wait to replay the events for friends, as though in retelling the story we make it our own, if just for a moment.

We live easy third-person lives but want a bit of the darkness. War fascinates because we live so far from its realities. Maybe we’d feel differently about watching bombs blow up on TV if we saw them up close, if we knew how explosions rip the air, throttle your brain, and make your ears ring, if we knew the strain of wondering whether the car next to you at a traffic light would explode or a bomb would land on your house as you sleep. I don’t expect Iraqi soldiers would ever miss war. I have that luxury. I came home to peace, to a country that hasn’t seen war within its borders for nearly 150 years. Yes, some boys come home dead. But we live here without the other terrors and tragedies of war—cities flattened and riven with chaos and fear, neighbors killing one another, a people made forever weary by the violence.

And so I miss it.

Every day in Iraq, if you have a job that takes you outside the wire, you stop just before the gate and make your final preparation for war. You pull out a magazine stacked with thirty rounds of ammunition, weighing just over a pound. You slide it into the magazine well of your rifle and smack it with the heel of your hand, driving it up. You pull the rifle’s charging handle, draw the bolt back, and release. The bolt slides forward with a metallic snap, catching the top round and shoving it into the barrel. Chak-chuk. If I hear that a half century from now, I will know it in an instant. Unmistakable, and pregnant with possibility. On top of a diving board, as the grade-school-science explanation goes, you are potential energy. On the way down, you are kinetic energy. So I leave the gate and step off the diving board, my energy transformed.

If you think that it all happens overnight, then you are gravely mistaken. It is countless hours of pain, injuries, getting smashed, pride-swallowing training that will get you to your goals. If you see someone that you envy or think is getting what you feel you should be getting, know this; You are a Hater and should punch yourself in the face! Get real with yourself and understand that nothing is given, it’s always earned. So if you want it, man up and work your butt off and maybe you too will achieve it. If you get smashed and beat up all the time, one of two things are true; 1 – You need to find something else to do. 2 – Stick with it, it will only make you better and stronger. Either way, stop talking trash and deal with it. Enough said.

I had a great second week of training for the Mundials. I’m feeling stronger, faster and very well conditioned. I am noticing huge improvements in my strength as well as my conditioning! I had some cravings this week and cheated a bit on my diet (some candy and a couple of energy drinks), but all in all a good week. I still feel a lack of energy at times but I think it is because I’m not eating as much as I should throughout the day. I’m going to try and adjust this week.

Physical Stats
- Weight: 175 lbs (-2 lbs)
- Body Fat: 8.2% (-1%)
- Visceral Fat: 2 (Same as previous)
- Muscle Mass: 153.9 lbs (+1.3 lbs)
- Calories Burned per 24 hours period: 4,522 (+106 Calories)
- Metabolic Age: 12 (same as previous)

Weight Training

I am continuing to train as per week two but I will be making the following change in reps this week: Each exercise will be conducted with the following format; Four sets of 15 reps each.

Strength & Conditioning
I will be doing my S&C workouts 3 times a week on Tue, Thurs & Sat. (Same as previous)

Cardio Training
I am starting to do my runs with a 20 lbs weight vest as well as increasing speed and distance requirements. I’m also working to push for more consecutive swimming laps in the pool.

Note: Sunday is my rest day. (Same as previous)

Supplements

(Same as previous)

After my first week of training I can tell you that I am a lot stronger and my conditioning gets better every day but this past week has been a very hard one. I got a cold the Saturday before last but I was able to work through it and continue my training. I am keeping my eyes on the goal of winning the Gold at the Worlds Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships 2011 and it keeps me motivated to train even though I spent my first week very sore and lacking energy. Having a training partner made things a lot easier so I want to send a big thanks to Jr and to all my training partners and students at Team 3 Fight Academy and the rest of the Checkmat team.

I am making huge improvements and I can feel the difference, but more importantly, my numbers below have shown my progress. I will continue to push even harder this week.

Physical Stats
- Weight: 177 lbs (+1.2 lbs)
- Body Fat: 9.2% (-1.6%)
- Visceral Fat: 2 (-1 rating point)
- Muscle Mass: 152.6 lbs (+3.6 lbs)
- Calories Burned per 24 hours period: 4,416 (+96 Calories)
- Metabolic Age: 12 (same as previous)

Weight Training

I am continuing to train as per week one but I will be making the following change in reps this week: Each exercise will be conducted with the following format; Set 1 – 12 reps, Set 2 – 10 reps, Set 3 – 8 reps, Set 4 – 6 reps (increasing the weight of each set with the goal of burning out and needing a spot on the last set).

Strength & Conditioning
I will be doing my S&C workouts 3 times a week on Tue, Thurs & Sat. (Same as previous)

Cardio Training
I will be doing a various set of cardio workouts on Mon, Wed and Fri consisting of running and swimming. (Same as previous)

Note: Sunday is my rest day. (Same as previous)

Supplements

(Same as previous)

So I’ve decided to document my Worlds Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships 2011 train-up mainly so that I can help to improve my training in the future and also see my gains in numbers and percentages. I hope that you enjoy the progress and find it educational as well as informative.

Physical Stats
- Weight: 175.8 lbs
- Body Fat: 10.8%
- Visceral Fat: 3
- Muscle Mass: 149 lbs
- Calories Burned per 24 hours period: 4,320
- Metabolic Age: 12

Pictures Day 1:

Weight Training
I started my usual weight training this morning and will continue this for the remainder of the week. I will be lifting from Mon – Fri as follows: Mon – Legs, Tues – Arms, Wed – Back, Thur – Chest, Fri – Shoulders. I will be conducting a series of exercises while focusing on only one muscle group a day. Each exercise will be conducted with the following format; Set 1 – 15 reps, Set 2 – 12 reps, Set 3 – 10 reps, Set 4 – 8 reps (increasing the weight of each set). I will be breaking up each day up into 4 sets of 4 exercises, with the 4th exercise in each set being a 3 min jump rope session (speed rope workout). The 4th set of exercises will be an abdominal workout alternating from one day to the next, the focus of upper and lower abs & hip flex0rs.

Strength & Conditioning
I will be doing my S&C workouts 3 times a week on Tue, Thurs & Sat.

Cardio Training
I will be doing a various set of cardio workouts on Mon, Wed and Fri consisting of running and swimming.

Note: Sunday is my rest day but there is no cheating as far as food goes. I will be intaking a high complex carb and high lean protein diet. No dairy, energy drinks, greasy foods, red meat or processed foods. I will stay as close to organic as possible.

Supplements
As per a previous blog of mine, I posted all the supplements that I take (http://www.sergio-machado.com/blog/2009/11/what-the-heck-is-he-on/) and I have decided to update this list with a little more detail as to when and how.

The following is what I take in the morning before breakfast (steel cut oats and 3 egg whites):

- Morning Shake: 12 oz of apple juice, 1 table spoon of Vitamineral Green (http://www.healthforce.com/), and 1 scoop of Super Seed fiber (http://www.vitaminshoppe.com/store/en/browse/sku_detail.jsp;jsessionid=OKYRID1N1FS5ICTLKKEFAGIKNNJISUNE?id=GU-1017).

- Multi-Vitamin: Max for Men (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/country/max.html)

- Vitamin C (500 mg) You can buy this at Target or Walmart… your choice of brand.

- Joint Support:
1: Animal Flex (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/univ/flex.html)
2: Bluebonnet Nutrition Omega-3 (http://www.iherb.com/natural-omega-3-1000-mg-180-softgels/11821?at=0),
3: Cissus (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/prima/cis.html)

- Muscle Growth: Viraloid (http://www.netnutri.com/browse.cfm/4,2382.html)

- 1 Baby Asprin a day (http://www.wonderdrug.com/products/ar/ar_als81.htm)

- 1 Tums tablet for calcium.

Pre-Workout:

- Protien: 1 vial of New Whey Liquid Protien 25 grams (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/ids/new.html) mixed with 2 scoops of Beta Alanine (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/prima/betaalanine.html).

- Muscle Growth: 17HD (http://www.netnutri.com/browse.cfm/4,2383.html)

Post-Workout (s):

- Reconvery: 25 g of GlutaPure (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/un/glut.html), Recoverite Shake (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/ham/rec.html) mixed with 2 scoops of Beta Alanine (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/prima/betaalanine.html).

- Vitamin C (500 mg)

Before Dinner:

- Muscle Growth: Viraloid (http://www.netnutri.com/browse.cfm/4,2382.html)

- Vitamin C (500 mg)

- Joint Support: Cissus (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/prima/cis.html)

Before Bed:

- Muscle Growth:  ZMA (http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/prima/zma.html)

When Energy is needed throughout the day:

- Energy: 5 Hour Energy (http://www.5hourenergy.com/?gclid=CNOXjLjJoZ4CFRHyDAod3GVBnw)

This is what my week 1 training will consist of not including my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training which averages 2 – 3 times a day. So keep checking back for my weekly updates. I will try and post every Monday the previous weeks stats and changes.

Disclaimer: What I have listed here are the only supplements that I am taking. I am not taking any performance enhancing drugs and or HGH.

How to Stay in Shape

Get hold of any celebrity magazine and you will be flashed with images of models with well-toned bodies. Switch on the idiot box and you will have your favorite actor or actress looking a million bucks with not even an inch of fat on their bodies. Now, in most cases, you will be inspired to go on a dieting spree, which would last for a week or so, and then finally the same old thing would happen – you would give up on your weight loss “regimen”. So, what can you do differently to ensure that you remain fit and healthy? For starters, follow the below given fitness tips on how to stay in shape…

Tips on How to Stay in Shape

A Strong Will Power
For staying in shape, the first thing that you need to do is to make up your mind. Let me tell you, losing weight and staying in shape won’t happen overnight. It would require consistent efforts, focus and a strong will power from your side. You may read more on how long does it take to get in shape. So, be ready to sacrifice some of the things that you like, to stay in shape!

A Balanced Diet
One of the most important ways to stay in shape, without which you can not even imagine a healthy body, is a balanced diet. Here are some effective tips on how to stay fit by making a few dietary changes.

• Eliminate all fatty foods, fried foods, fast foods and processed foods from your diet. Give up soft drinks as they give the body nothing but empty calories. More on how to get in shape.
• Do not starve yourself. Instead, make healthy food choices such as including lots of veggies and fruits in your diet.
• Do not even think of undertaking any of the fad diets as most of their results are short lived.
• Instead of three big meals, take five small meals.
• To fulfill the body’s carbohydrate requirements, eat foods with complex carbohydrates such as brown rice, whole wheat bread, sweet potatoes, legumes, oatmeal and green leafy vegetables. Eliminate white foods from the diet such as pasta and rice.
• Make sure that the diet has enough proteins, fibers and calcium as they all aid in fat burning. So, include lean meats, eggs, low-fat dairy products, lots of fiber rich fruits and vegetables and healthy fat foods like olive oil, almonds and nuts in your diet.
• Drink a gallon of water everyday as it improves digestion and keeps the body hydrated.
• Preferably, cook at home as home-cooked food is much more healthier and low in calories, compared to outside, hotel food.

An Exercise Routine
The best way to stay in shape in college or even otherwise, is to exercise every day. Cardiovascular exercises such as running, jogging, swimming, cycling, dancing and aerobics, are great to keep those extra kilos off as well as to increase stamina. You may read more on how to increase stamina. Choose any activity of your choice or alternate between these to keep up your interest. In fact, performing pregnancy exercises regularly is one of the ways to stay in shape during pregnancy. However, when it comes to exercising, do not overdo it. To stay in shape while pregnant, preferably exercise under a trainer.

Along with cardiovascular exercises, weight lifting is essential to keep the muscles strengthened, to tone up the body, and to build endurance, both for men as well as women. You may further go to how to increase endurance. So, if you are serious about staying in shape, join a gym. A professional will make an exercise routine, keeping your weight, age and body structure in mind. Usually, most experts recommend working on a particular body part each day, along with cardio of forty minutes every alternate day, with Sundays as rest days.

A Stress-Free Life
To stay in shape, leading a stress-free life is essential. So, sleep for seven to eight hours everyday. Preferably, sleep early and wake up early to stay active and alert. Meditate for a few minutes everyday as it will help you cope up with any work or personal stresses. Performing yoga and meditation under the guidance of an expert, will help you maintain the right mind-body balance and thus, is one of the most effective ways to get in shape.

These are some tips on how to stay in shape, which will help you keep your health in the best possible condition. Besides these tips on getting fit and healthy, having a positive disposition is very important too as a positive, happy person has an altogether different aura which is hard to miss! So, in between taking care of your personal and professional commitments, pursue a hobby or go on a vacation, once in a while!

By Aastha Dogra
Published: 1/5/2011

Gracie Magazine Jiu-Jitsu manual; 20 tips to enhance your play

By Raphael Nogueira and Marcelo Dunlop

Published here courtesy of Graciemag.com

If you only read and keep the teachings presented here, you’re not going anywhere with your ground techniques. The following advices – useful in tournaments with gi, grappling, MMA and for the athletes personal evolution – ought to be studied between trainings. On this case, our little script here can change everything you had been doing wrong – or simply didn’t know existed. Aiming at bringing you a large and carefully wrought guide (whether you are or not a beginner), we have asked the main masters of the sport: what would you like to have found out earlier? What’s behind the gold medals and amazing titles? What are the shortcuts? What are the secrets? Each Jiu-Jitsu exponent brought their own delicacy to this feast. Enjoy, therefore, this manual if you wish to evolve. In Jiu-Jitsu, life – everything.

1. Exercise your ears

“The first rule to perfect your Jiu-Jitsu is to never be deaf to other people’s knowledge,” says Renzo Gracie. “It’s common to see guys who deem themselves professors decline a new teaching, ignoring a pupil who shows something new. To grow better you must understand how people think and how they got to that position. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s up to you to enhance it.” A clear example was a coup with which Gracie surprised Canadian fighter Carlos Newton in the Pride Bushido 1: “I nearly submitted him on the foot lock, in a position a white-belt had taught me. Starting from the tip I perfected and developed the leg attack, from the knee lock to the foot lock.” To Renzo, it doesn’t matter whether the student is a blue-, white-belt, or someone who’s never fought: the moment they show you something, shut your mouth and pay attention. “Even if the move is not efficient, the concept might help your play. When you don’t allow yourself to accept any other form of knowledge, you become a limited professor,” he teaches.

2. Always believe in the move

If you follow Rodrigo Minotauro’s MMA bouts, you can probably figure out his tip to make your Jiu-Jitsu better. A combative athlete, always with a surprising coup at hand, he shoots: “Fight to get a grip on your opponent.” How do you do that? Well, the Brazilian Top Team star suggests that every fighter ignores the clock and the points during the combats. This measure may result in defeats in the beginning, but on the long run it’ll leave the fighter “light and loose” (Nogueira’s definition). “There is nothing better than fighting naturally and pressure-free,” he says. “The secret is to believe He’s got to believe,” adds Wallid Ismail. Carlson Gracie’s black-belt’s advice is based on three elements: stamina, attitude and will to win. “At the time of the position or the fight, the main thing is to believe. To make the move work, you’ve got to believe it will work. And it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side, because there lies the difference between winner and loser. The winner is never intimidated. He may even fear, but he must have something greater inside – the attitude.”

3. Practice an outdoor sport

Soccer, jogging, outdoor work out – there’s always a healthy activity waiting for the athlete who takes off the gi after hours of grappling in the academy. One can then dive into a commonplace sport (surf, for instance, is practised by nine in every ten fighters) or even invent their own distraction. This strategy keeps the body in shape without making the fighter stressed from the training routine. “Every physical activity, not only Jiu-Jitsu, is useful for working out heart and mind, leading the guy to thinking that, instead of smoking a joint or using drugs, he can dedicate his time to exercise,” says Royler Gracie, who has since 1999 been climbing the Rock of Gavea, at Rio de Janeiro: “It’s a workout similar to the Macacos Hill trail at Teresopolis, which I would cross with Rickson when he was preparing for MMA fights,” he recollects.

4. Repeat the moves over and over

Leaders of victorious academies in Jiu-Jitsu and MMA, Andre Pederneiras (Nova Uniao) and Sylvio Behring (Winner-Behring) don’t fear being repetitive when they assure that the motto is to persist and persist and then persist some more when it comes to position-training. “Definitely the key is the positions. In judo, the athlete makes 1,000 takedowns on every session. It’s sad to see that in the Jiu-Jitsu milieu people think it’s a waste of time. We repeat the basic positions in the warm up about 5 times before every practice”, says Pederneiras. Master Sylvio corroborates: “Every title we conquered in the last years with Mario Reis and Fabricio Werdum were due to this philosophy: repeating the basics and go through a training fight under supervision, which is the sparring game. One of the athletes executes every type of attack, arm, triangle, and the other tries to defend from the blitz”, says Marcelo Behring’s brother, who demands 90 seconds or a series of 100 repetitions after training. “Thus the athlete reaches exhaustion and lets the movement flow naturally.” After all, as professor Jean Jacques Machado puts it, it’s better to repeat a position a thousand times, working on it for a month, than learning one a day.

The phenomenon Nino “Elvis” Schembri also agrees on the tip: “More and more I convince myself that one should pay attention to the positions, from the white all the way to the black belt. The main thing in Jiu-Jitsu, a sport in which, I believe, the most technical player gets the advantage, is to repeat the positions. Everybody does that in boxing, judo, but in Jiu-Jitsu the guys are a little lazy. Including me.” To Nino, it’s reasonable to reserve the beginning of the practice to repeating 50 positions for each side, thrice a week. “And don’t even think of giving up”, he smiles.

5. Set goals

In the nineties, when he was among the best competitors in Jiu-Jitsu, Ze Mario Sperry had a notebook where he would right the goals to be reached in training, in a given period. The black-belt used to rip the leaves and leave them on all corners of his house. “I’d go to the bathroom to shave and would find a note glued to the mirror: ‘If you want to be a champion, you’ve got one week to do this or train that’,” he recalls. Sperry explains that setting goals helps in the evaluation and control of what is being produced in the training. “The ideal is that the fighter define what he wants. Afterwards, find ways to get there, reckoning the time necessary to reach it.” For an example, the black-belt recollects the time he set the goal of getting a perfect physical condition. To achieve it, he designed a series that focused on several exercises, such as squatting, weight lifting and running-sprints. “By keeping my heart-beat accelerated with this workout, I made progress until I conditioned my body to the rhythm of the combats.” This “note pursuit” enabled the BTT master to keep focus on his career’s objectives, being sure what he had to improve in a near future.

Black-belt Vitor Shaolin warns his students about this up to this day: “You must set up your training in such a way that you define what are the two most important competitions for you to be in that year. No matter how much you try it, you can never be 100% in all tournaments,” he guarantees. “Then you must establish the rules: ‘I want to be well in the Brazilian and World championships.’ And prepare to place well only in these tournaments, not minding whatever you win or lose in the rest of the competitions. The body is not a machine and cannot remain on a level 8 or 9 all the time, be it in Jiu-Jitsu or MMA, which is the Triathlon of fighting,” the Shooto champion concludes.

6. Be dynamic

To Amaury Bitetti, Jiu-Jitsu is like chess: you only move a piece thinking of the next move. The two-time world open champion in ’96-’97 says an attacking position during the fight must always be connected to other future positions whose objective is the submission or – just to follow the comparison – the check-mate. In order to achieve that, Amaury advises that the attack-trainings should be made in a logical progression. For instance: a takedown leads to a guard-pass, which in its turn leads us to a mount, which leads to a choke. The combinations are infinite; what matters is that your game be not static. Just as in the whiskey advertisement: keep walking. Turn your Jiu-Jitsu into a motor gear.

7. You are an athlete, not a weight-lifter

Two-time world open champion 02-03, Marcio Pe de Pano strives to convince the athletes of the fact that they don’t need to look for a superathlete’s body at any cost. To the black-belt, the secret lies, above all, in training to ally technique and good conditioning. “If you train Jiu-Jitsu, you ought to work out, but not make a monstrous physical preparation,” he comments. “If you fight MMA or wrestling, you might need such a body. In Jiu-Jitsu, physical preparation is not all: one must work to become a technical and conditional athlete.” Therefore, don’t go try anything silly.

8. Strengthen your grip

The first attitude necessary to follow this hint by Vitor Shaolin is: tighten that rope well! After all, the principle behind this task is to use a thick rope tied to the academy’s ceiling in order to strengthen the fighter’s grip on the opponent’s gi. An important detail is that this exercise is good to another very important muscle for the athlete: the abdomen.

As Shaolin demonstrates, there are three ways of climbing, each of which improves a specific group of moves. In the first exercise (picture A), the athlete uses short grips to get to the top, which helps in the chokes executed with the hands near and the arms bent. As he shows, the climb can be made with the hand reversed (picture B). In the following task (picture C) he goes upwards with wider grips, ideal to strengthen a pull from the ground with a hip escape (bottom picture) or any position that demands a strong grip with the arms stretched. The detail is to keep the legs always elevated, which toughens the abs. “You go up, stop for a few seconds with the legs stretched, and then descend in the same fashion,” explains the Nova Uniao professor. “The wider grip is the hardest, so I do it only once a day, five times a week. The other one, easier, I repeat ten times a week, twice on one day, thrice on the next, then twice… Always after training, when the arms are more tired.”

9. Strive to be complete

What good is it to get an A+ in guard-passing but flunk attack-from-the-back? To stand out in Jiu-Jitsu, the fighter can’t excel at one or two moves. He must play in the eleven, as we say in football. Black-belt Saulo Ribeiro teaches a simple way of reaching versatility: “Many people despises the warm-up before practising. Well, dedicate the first 15 minutes in the academy to doing the basic: escape from the back, from the mount, and side-mount. In the next 15, practise submission from the back, the mount and the side-mount. Do this every day in your Jiu-Jitsu career. It may be boring, but it’ll make you complete. No matter what belt. I am a black-belt and still discipline myself into doing it till today. Oh, I nearly missed it. Practise judo at least twice a week. Knowing how to fight standing is also fundamental. That it my formula for becoming complete.”

10. Posture is everything

By training Jiu-Jitsu frequently, three or four times a week, our physical preparation specialist Martin Rooney’s attention was caught by a simple, though essential, tip. “It was something that changed the way I looked at workout itself: whether on the mat or with the dumb-bells, always pay attention to your posture. That is the most important, both if you are trying pass a guard or lifting tremendous weight. Without the adequate posture you don’t spare moves, you worsen the strike’s execution and augment the health hazards – or loss hazards.” In case the reader suspects on Martin for the fact that he isn’t a great BJJ star, remember that is one of the aspects Rickson Gracie stresses the most while training. So, straight neck, lined-up shoulders, firm back and off you go.

11. Learn from defeat

Many fighters absorb but negativity from losses. They get depressed, blame God and the world for the result and, sometimes, deem their careers finished. Leonardo Vieira does the exact opposite. He uses the defeats (preferably in practices, of course) to reflect on what he can do better. “I’m convinced that everybody who submits all of their opponents in the trainings is actually learning nothing,” says Leo. Like the child, who only learns how to walk by stumbling, it’s by tapping that the Jiu-Jitsu practitioner improves their art. Therefore, the Brasa black-belt advises that the masters mix athletes of different graduations in the trainings. Thus the fights aren’t too even, leaving room for adversities. Martin Rooney agrees: “The athlete who reacts with bad feelings to the defeats isn’t learning the incredible lessons that have been taught him, and that would make his chances of losing again much smaller. There’s no such thing as winning and losing, but only winning and learning,” says Renzo’s and Ricardo Cachorrao’s trainer. “Only you can your reaction and spirits to grow as an athlete. I believe the person that has been submitted the most is the toughest to beat. That’s what a tough guy is made of. That’s of a black-belt is made of,” he summarizes. Leo Vieira calls the attention to the fact that the losses out of the mats are just as fundamental to form a champion, above all in what concerns character. “When there was a dissidence at the first formation of the Alliance team and I was alone in Sao Paulo, I went through one of the most difficult moments of my life. However, I became a much stronger person and learned a lot about life. I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t gone through that,” he evaluates.

12. Look for the best version of the move for you

Master Osvaldo Alves says that up until the nineteen-seventies one only gave and armbar-in-guard by uncrossing and wide-opening the legs. “I realized this coup was vulnerable, for it enabled the opponent to flee and pass the guard easily. So I invented the climbing-armbar,” recalls the red-and-black-belt. As you can see on the image, this armlock version makes it a lot harder for the adversary to escape. “The thing is to not lock the opponent’s arm, but his/her shoulder,” clears up the master, who uses his own calf against the sparring’s shoulder, stopping him from getting up. Summarizing: if you don’t get along with a certain move, try to perfect it, adapt it to your physical and technical traits, always searching new versions for it. That’s what makes Jiu-Jitsu evolve continuously.

13. The best strategy is the attack

“I always try to attack. While I’m on the offensive, my opponent can think of nothing but defending, that is, I’m protected,” Marcelo Garcia teaches. As an example, the Alliance black-belt recalls the time when he didn’t know to keep an open guard. He would cross the legs on the opponent’s back and pray for the time to elapse. “I was afraid of attacking,” he evaluates. After noticing the deficiency Marcelo started uncrossing the feet and practising sweeps. He realised that, if he went right onto the adversary, he’d run a much smaller risk of being submitted than if he played defending, applying but rare counter-strikes. Garcia also realised that, by being the first to attack, he would make his opponents abandon their former plan. If he prolonged the blitz, Marcelo also prolonged this “untouchable” state. But there are those who say that repeated attacks tend to tire the athlete. “What really tires is to hold the fight back the whole time,” Marcelo argues. Notwithstanding, the black-belt gives some advice on physical preparation for those who agree that the best defense is the attack: “Climbing stairs and ramps is the best option for an amazing guard,” he reveals.

14. Don’t forget to enhance your defense

Despite liking the attacking strategy suggested by Marcelo Garcia, Rillion Gracie stresses the importance of training submission-escapes (remembering that the other guy may attack first). “Look at Roger Gracie’s performances in the last World Championship. He suffered fulminating attacks right in the beginning of the battles but was able to defend like a master to then counter-attack,” Rillion recalls. The Gracie Leblon Master says that, while practising defense, the competitor learns exactly what the opponent feels like in situations of adversity. “Learning defense improves the attack. I f the lion knows how the prey can escape, it’ll capture it in a much more precise way,” he ponders. To practise defense in Jiu-Jitsu, Rillion advises the reader into forgetting s/he is strong. “Exercise your patience. Use the weight and the force of the levers,” he explains. “Start practising defense as soon as possible, to awake just as soon the survival instinct in your fighter’s soul.”

15. Stretch!

Ever since he was a kid, Antonio Schembri has been used to stretching daily. And he never complained, unlike his opponents, whom, in time and practice, he began to submit in the most varied ways. “I’m very flexible, so I always take a strong session before and after training. Some people are stiffer, they don’t like it, but stretching is essential, especially the bottom half, legs, spine and lumbar,” says the Chute Boxe athlete. According to “Elvis,” stretching is vital even for improving the guard. “What I realize in competitions, even black-belts’, is that everybody gets along well on top, but not everyone can keep a good guard. So besides stretching, which improves the de-passing, the athlete must set up a schedule and program himself and persist in training every single variation, butterfly guard, closed guard, with inside hooks… You can’t let the guy cross the knee line, or else you’ll have to pull something out of your ass to stop the guy from passing,” Schembri teaches.

16. Develop self-knowledge

According to Fabio Gurgel, competition-Jiu-Jitsu is so leveled nowadays that the small details can make the difference in the fight’s result. Considering that you, fearless reader, have already looked after the technique and physical preparation, the Alliance general calls the attention to a “detail” that can turn you into a giant of the mats: self-knowledge. “I advise my students to talk to themselves. Self-evaluation makes the athlete know himself better, finding out his true virtues and weaknesses. He starts being conscious of his own instincts, develops self-confidence and doesn’t chiken out. Thus the athlete can design an ideal fighting plan,” Gurgel analyses, and then describes the state of mind with which one should enter the ring: “The fighter’s self-knowledge must turn the battler into something pleasant. The Jiu-Jitsu practitioner must have fun in the championships. That way, it all becomes easy.”

17. Simulate hindrances and escapes

“Back at Carlson’s academy, I always trained with partners who would attack me full-on That’s what’s bad about training in an academy where everybody wants to fight for real: you don’t get used to the opponent that hinders the fighting in the competitions,” Ricardo de la Riva points out, stressing the hard time he had developing his game against Japanese fighter Yuki Nakai in September 2004.His hint, accordingly, is to simulate fights where the opponent neither tries to pass nor to submit; to fight against a technical sparring – or one who runs away. Marcelo Garcia also has a hint for those hard situations: stretching and breathing. “The fighter has got to know how to stretch and move all of his members, besides breathing properly, for the time when he is on the bottom, being smashed and smothered by the adversary,” says the middle-weight world champion. In order to learn how to get out of the tough situations, Garcia indicates: the good thing is to practise guard with heavier mates.

18. Try!

Jean Jacques Machado likes to awake his students’ creativity. The master organizes “lab sessions” during the trainings in the academy where he teaches in Los Angeles. On these moments he shows the classroom a move, asks the students to study it and to present a defense a week later. “There are many ways to get to a goal. I like my pupils to use their creativity and find out new ways to get there,” he evaluates. In other words, Jean doesn’t make his apprentices “move repeaters.” By disseminating experimentalism in his lessons, the black-bellt gives birth to classrooms full of creative and innovating athletes. Leo Vieira likes Jacques’ methodology, but presents another way of making the students open minded: “Look at the kids fighting. Notice how they’re always laughing and jumping around. That’s how I like to fight. Children invent, use unexpected moves that, if adapted to adult Jiu-Jitsu, can be fruitful. Teaching kids is a great source of knowledge to me.”

19. Regularity, always

Also to 1999 ADCC champion Jean Machado, there’s nothing more important than regularity. Not vanishing from the academy is, therefore, essential for the athlete’s evolution – s/he must avoid substituting wasted weeks with overtraining periods. Nearly every one of the gi-superstars knows that by heart, as Pe de Pano Illustrates: “The secret is regularity: training over and over and over. Twice a day if possible. As I began late, I would make it up by going to the academy in the afternoon and at night.” According to him, training regularly leads to evolving and injury-avoiding. “For the fact that you keep training, the body gets used to the effort you make. It was after I began resuming and quitting that I began to have injuries often,” he completes. A partisan to that idea, Vitor Shaolin exemplifies: “Besides training often, you must divide the trainings, understand that there is a little something called resting. So if in the afternoon the practice is slower, take the chance to rest. If your body doesn’t react all that well in the morning but you know that in the morning the training is profitable, wake up earlier to get your body prepared. Practise more heavily at night, but don’t let it go on till too late, for you might go to bed tense, thinking of training – and end up not resting at all.”

20. Respect and reflect

Respect and dedication are utterly necessary to Ricardo de la Riva. “The idea is to arrive with an open mind and to practise with pleasure, and not to simply want to win in the training. You must respect, above all, not only the dojo and the professor, but also your practice-mate, after all you need him/her,” says the master. According to Martin Rooney, the salutation can afford great benefits that sometimes can go by unnoticed. “In all sports, athletes create rituals that push the negative energy away. However, I realise that many Jiu-Jitsu beginners ignore that fact, maybe for seeing martial arts as just a way of defending, a game of win or lose,” he says. Martin refers to the simple and traditional act of bowing. Associated for centuries to martial arts, the act should not be seen as only a demonstration of respect or a sign that the fight has begun. As the American trainer explains, the time to bow is a great opportunity to concentrate. The bow is the moment when the practice begins, so any negative thought or attitude must be left aside – or out of the academy. “A salutation at the end of the practice enables the athlete to go back to his normal life,” he says. “Develop, therefore, a strong mental connection so that your mind is activated by the bow in the beginning. Just as in any sport, if your head is not ready to practise, it’s impossible to learn anything,” Rooney concludes.

If you train hard enough long enough eventually you will experience burn out or over training. For combat athletes this is something we must always be aware of as our sports tend to have the added stresses of strict dieting and weight cutting it is good to understand what over training is and more importantly what the symptoms are. Over training as defined by wikipedia – is a physical, behavioral, and emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of an individual’s exercise exceeds their recovery capacity. They cease making progress, and can even begin to lose strength and fitness. So now that we’ve clearly defined what over training is lets take a look at some of the symptoms. Persistent muscle soreness and fatigue are probably the first things you’ll notice when the onset of over training is taking place. Increased cortisol (the stress hormone) levels which can wreak all kinds of havoc on an athletes emotional state. During the state of over training an athlete also becomes much more prone to infection and getting sick, it’s not uncommon of hearing about fighters getting the flu the week of a fight. This is a direct result of over training. While the physical symptoms of over training can be tough, for me its the mental aspects that i find the most troubling as depression , irritability , and mental breakdown often accompany the above physical symptoms. Self doubt and loss of enthusiasm are good things to look out for. A peaking athlete should feel positive and enthusiastic about his progress and upcoming competition certainly not the opposite. This may be a hard thing to deal with , especially close to a fight when taking time off or resting seems like the worst thing to do. The conflicting thoughts inside the athletes mind only cause more stress and further the difficulties. I personally enjoy training i don’t need to be dragged to practice and i generally don’t want to do anything else most of the time so if i feel myself not wanting to be there or having anxiety about training I know i need to back off and prob take a few days to get that hunger back and let my body recover. While training at Xtreme Couture I was given a supplement to deal with over training right off Randy’s XCAP line of products. The product is called ADRENAL GLANDULAR and i swear by this stuff now. I cant tell you how it works (its 100% legal and not a banned substance FYI) all i know is in 2 or 3 days I feel myself chomping at the bit to get in there and train. It was explained to me that our adrenal glands get taxed more so than in other sports do to the fight or flight response our body naturally goes through during the day in day out rigors of fight training. After a while they aren’t able to keep up which explains that lack of enthusiasm and anxiety. So i take 3 pills 3 times a day until I start feeling good again and continue to take them a few days after. I hope this goes to help some of you identify and remedy the troubles of over training below i placed the link to take a look at the Adrenal Glandulars , i hope you have the same experience I’ve had with them.

Eric Uresk